Name: Video: Water Heater Flushing Frequency
Uploaded: 2025-11-13T05:52:44Z
Channel: Diamond Certified Resource

There's an ongoing debate on the question of how often should I flush my water heater, and that is based on the water quality annually is gonna be the best answer. If you're in an area that has really hard water and a lot of minerals, then you are gonna want to probably have that tank, uh, flushed out every six months. Uh, this as well goes for tankless water heaters and descaling of these units. Why we want to do this is to remove the buildup that sits at the bottom of a water heater tank, which is a storage tank. And all that mineral sits down at the bottom of a tank, which is steel. And there is a process that will happen between water and steel. At some point it will start to rust, and that corrosion sitting at the bottom of the tank, uh, speeds up that. So by removing that sediment annually, you're prolonging the life of your water heater. A lot of manufacturers of water heaters will put a sticker right on their tank that indicates due to the natural corrosive action, at some point this tank will fail. So again, it's very important to have your water heater serviced and drained out and flushed to remove the sediment on an annual basis or sooner.

Video: Water Heater Flushing Frequency

with David Langdale of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqIHifJ3k7I

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The simplest way to increase your water heater's operating lifespan is to flush its tank annually. Today we're in Novato with diamond certified expert contributor Danielle Gagne of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing to learn how it's done.

Hi, my name is Danielle Gagne, and today I'm going to show you how to flush our water heater. The reason we flush water heaters, and needs to be done at least once a year, is because there's a lot of sediment in the water and sediment tends to sit at the bottom of the water heater tank. And if you don't maintain your water heater, flush it yearly, and take a look at certain components, your water heater is gonna become less and less efficient. It could even start leaking from the base.

So first thing that you need to do, something a homeowner can do very easily themselves, they'll need a garden hose. Usually, you tend the garden hose and you extend it all the way to the outside in the garden or in the girl and the driveway. You need to identify the water shut-off, which is usually on top of the water heater. In this case, it's all the way up here. So first thing to do is to shut the water off. And if you have a what we call a ball valve, then the ball valve needs to be perpendicular to the to the pipe. So now it is actually in a shutoff. And then you take the garden hose. You'll need a pair of channel locks, and at the bottom of the water heater, there's usually going to be a drain valve. And here's your drain valve over here. This one doesn't have a handle. It has a little so you can put a screwdriver and turn it on with a screwdriver.

So I'll attach the hose to the drain valve, just give it that just snug it up a little bit with my channel locks here so it doesn't leak. And then now I'm gonna turn the water on then let the water heat water heater flush. So now you can hear the water flushing through the hose. You might you want to make sure that your hose doesn't have any in it. So you want to go in the driveway or outside and make sure the water is flowing freely. One thing to also keep in mind is your water heater after a while is going to become air locked. So you can either turn the temperature and pressure-relief valve ear on the on position so you let the water heater drain. It's now been draining for about 10-15 minutes, and you want to see the the color of the water at first. It'll come out kind of milky and it'll have some sentiment in it, and then eventually it kind of clears up. Once the water comes out clear then usually you're pretty much good to go.

So when you're done then you could just restore just shut down everything. You could shut your drain valve off during the off position turn your T&P off or shut the faucets in the house if you turn any faucets in the house. And now we can go ahead and remove the drain hose and we'll turn the water back on like turn into valve parallel with the pipe and again same as when we flush our water heater when we refill the tank it can also become air locked. So you have to turn leave a faucet on the hot water side inside the house until water comes out of it so that there is no air that gets stuck in the tank. And once the water comes out of the faucet you turn the faucet off and you're good to go.

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Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing

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